Crimson Bow
by ClasslessToast
Summary: Bauman Raionhato never had much; no parents or guardians, no teachers, but he had love that he was too shy to express. But his life changes forever when the Colossal Titan breaks yet another hole in the wall. Will his skill of archery help him get noticed by the military, or will it get him killed? And what is this new breed of Titan attacking the city! Rated T just to be safe.
1. The Day It All Changed

The forest around him seemed to stand still as he examined the area around him. All was quite except for an ere ringing in his ear as the silence seemed to smoother him. Suddenly, a twig snapped, catching his attention and pulling the string notch farther back against the bow string. In his sight was a deer, who stared innocently at him. With a slow and hushed breath, he released the arrow, sending it flying quickly at the deer, hitting it in its side. Running off, the man slowly rose and found a trail of blood from the deer. He followed it until he reached a field of tall grass. With his arrow resting against the string, he walked slowly into the grass and finally spotting the corpse of the dead deer. Cracking a small smile, he removed the arrow and left the deer for food to the other animals. After a few minutes, he had walked into a small cabin. Opening the door, an elderly couple greeted him with weak, yet happy smiles.

"How was it, dear?" The old woman asked as the man took a few arrows from a small barrel and sat a few coins down in front of them. "Like any other day; another peaceful hunting session." The old couple laughed as they waved him off. Walking back towards the city, he felt today was strange. Ever since he woke up that day, something was bound to happen, and he was sure it wasn't anything good. 'It is amazing,' he thought to himself, 'it seems like only yesterday this place was crawling with Titans.'

He, Bauman Raionhato, grew up an orphan with no parents or guardians, teaching himself how to read and write, how to be himself, and above all: how to love. Back when he was younger, Bauman liked this girl named Mikasa, who he never grew strong enough to speak to. He would watch from the shadows, blushing every time. But it had been a few years since he had seen her, and it had been only days since the wall had been sealed with a boulder. The thought of a human controlling a Titan seemed to race through his head as he would walk home every day, but never understood how. But he knew one thing; he wanted to be a soldier. Even though he made their weapons and some of their gear being a blacksmith, he could never work up the courage to ask if he could become one. Sometimes he'd watch as soldiers walked by, admiring their dedication to humanity's fate, though he knew some only joined for show. He couldn't help, though, knowing bowmen like him were not needed as a soldier. Bows and arrows were sad to be useless in defeating a Titan, though Bauman knew exactly how to defeat a Titan with his bow.

He was only a short walk from his house when the sky was filled with a yellowish lightning strike. People screamed in terror as Bauman caught sight of a huge head peering over the wall and into the city. "No," he muttered to himself, "not again!" He began sprinting until he reached his house. Entering, he threw a chest open and took out a stack of arrows with black tips and placed them in his quiver. Running out to see the Titan, a loud crashing noise came from the wall as it smashed yet another hole into the wall. Bauman gritted his teeth as he began to run, bow in hand away from the Titan. Shortly after, Titans began pouring in, looking for the excitement to kill. Bauman watched as soldiers flew over the crowd as they sped off to hold off the Titans. He stopped for a moment to think. 'If I can help them hold off the Titans, then maybe they will see I could be a soldier, let alone bows are still effective!' Nodding his head, he ran threw the crowd towards the chaos. After a minute of running, the cries and screams of the people trying to escape grew silent as the light thumping noise from off in the distance slowly grew louder. Climbing to a rooftop of a home, he looked over the city that he could see and spotted roughly an 8 meter class only a few rooftops away from him. He leaped to the next roof, landing softly and charging towards the next jump. He continued to parkour from rooftop to rooftop until he was a few away from the Titan. It hadn't took notice of him yet, surprisingly. Moving slowly and quietly, Bauman approached the Titan, who had its back turned towards him, searching for humans through the windows.

Finally, Bauman had finally gotten close enough for a 100% chance to hit the Titan; only a few meters away. Drawing a black-tipped arrow from his quiver, he stroked the point quickly upon the roof, causing a flame to ignite on the tip of the arrow, but a loud scraping noise to echo through the air. The Titan turned, it's huge eyes staring down at him. He drew the arrow back, and held it, taking aim at the eye of the Titan. Before it's hand became level with the roof, Bauman released the arrow, sending the flaming projectile flying into the Titan's eye, causing blood to burst from the impact point and steam to rise from the wound. The Titan grabbed at it's eye, giving Bauman a moment to realize he wasn't able to truly beat a Titan like this. As the Titan cried loudly into the air, Bauman watched as the thought crossed his mind; 'What was I thinking, taking on a Titan like this? Am I mad?'

After a moment, Bauman snapped to his senses and leaped to the side, dodging the Titan's fist crashing down on the roof, sending debris flying. Getting to his feet, Bauman began running towards where the crowd was. After leaping back over the rooftops, he looked back to see the Titan, with one eye closed and bloody tears flying from it, running after him. Fear filled his heart as he began to run even faster. Suddenly, he tripped, scraping his knee and giving the Titan plenty of time to catch up. As he watched the Titan approach, he sighed as blood trickled from his knee into his hand. 'Who am I kidding?' he thought to himself, 'I have nothing left; no job, no family, what is there to live for?' After a moment, he grasped the bow and stood slowly. 'No, I do have one thing.' He pulled another black-tipped arrow out, lighting it on fire, and pulling it back, aiming at the Titan's other eye. "I have Mikasa to look for." he mumbled to himself. Releasing the arrow, it seemed to fly in slow motion as it sped from the bow towards the Titan. But suddenly, the Titan slowly tripped over itself, as if it was careless as to how it ran. Titan blood flew from it's neck as it hit the ground hard. A look of surprise and shock filled his gaze as a figure landed in front of him. He could make out feminine features as she slowly rose, her grey eyes met his. A surprised look filled her gaze.

"Bauman?"

"Mikasa?"


	2. New Titan?

Her gaze fell upon the bow in Bauman's hand as he slowly approached her. "Mikasa, is it really you?" She nodded, a calm look on her face. He smiled as he observed how much she had changed. "You look great." She smiled as her cheeks started to blush. "You don't look half bad yourself. I heard you were working as a blacksmith?" He nodded, almost forgetting about the Titans around them. "Yeah, its a good paying job. Maybe we could continue this conversation when we are in safety? "Oh, yeah, we should." Mikasa looked around, spotting two Titans slowly walking towards them; a 8 meter and a 13 meter. She turned back to him, studying his appearance. "Can you jump from roof to roof?"

"How else would I have gotten here?" Mikasa nodded as she motioned for him to follow her. Nodding, he ran beside her as they leaped from roof to roof closer to the two Titans. Suddenly, she used her 3D Maneuver gear flew off to the right, catching one of the Titan's attention, the other focused on Bauman. Flying around it's head, Mikasa evaded it's hand that smashed into a rooftop. Bauman drew an arrow from his quiver, pulling it back on the string and releasing the arrow notch. Blinding the Titan focused on him in it's left eye, the Titan stumbled backwards and landed hard on it's bum. Bauman quickly drew another arrow, shooting the Titan attacking Mikasa in it's right eye, causing it to grab at it's face and cry loudly at the sky. Mikasa spun in mid flight, her blades pointed outward, slicing the Titan's neck and killing it instantly. She landed on the building next to the one Bauman stood on with a surprised look on her face as she studied him with the bow. "How did you-"

"I taught myself." He chuckled as he drew another arrow, blinding the Titan completely before it could grab at Mikasa. It cried into the wind as Titan blood spewed from both eyes. Mikasa swung around, latched onto the Titan's throat, slicing it's neck. And again landing next to Bauman. She was astonished how well he used the bow, let alone how he taught himself. She smiled as they continued to parkour over the rooftops until they reached a lift that was slowly lowering to fill in with people. Cries and screams from the crowd made a chill run down Bauman's spine knowing that not all of them would live. He sighed as Mikasa noticed his sadden look. "What's wrong?" He looked to her, fear in his eyes. "They all aren't going to survive. Titans will come and devour them. I'll be one of them; I don't have the right gear or strength to climb the wall. How am I going to-" You don't have to climb the wall. There can be about 25 or so people per lift. There are two working at the same time. There are little over a hundred people still left to be taken over the wall. You'll be in and over in not time." She placed a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him. He nodded as he looked into her comforting eyes. Then, out of no where, the ground began shaking around them, hushing the crowd who stood afraid of the shaking. Catching Bauman and Mikasa's gaze was the earth bowing up like a mountain. Suddenly, the top ripped open into a huge hole, revealing a Titan.

"Wha... What is that thing?" Bauman muttered to Mikasa, who stood in shock and awe. The Titan was a 5 meter yet skinless; its red muscles were large on the upper torso. It's eyes took sight of all the buildings around it; it screamed a nearly defining sound as it began smashing the buildings and ripping them to shreds. It threw it's fists at the buildings like it was fighting for it's life to survive, yet it seemed so... dead. When the buildings around it were nothing but ruble, it began to steam and it's muscles disappeared, leaving a skeletal remain. In complete awe and shock, they stood watching the skeleton slowly disappear. "All it did was destroy everything in it's sight until it exhausted all it's energy." Mikasa mumbled as she turned to Bauman with confused looks on their faces. Suddenly, the ground began to shake again, but much more violently. Two more Titans rose from the earth, closer this time. They began to smash the buildings around them, but slowly they approached the humans, who screamed in terror as they approached. One of the Titans collapsed over and began to disintegrate, but the closest one caught sight of the humans. Before the lift could get off the ground, the Titan ripped the roof off of a building and threw it at the crowd of about 75 people, causing a huge dust cloud to form. Mikasa and Bauman watched in horror as the dust settled, revealing countless dead bodies. Soon after, the Titan collapsed and began to disintegrate as well.

"But... How? Why did it just die like that?" Bauman asked Mikasa, hoping she knew the answer. But it was no surprise that she didn't. "It must be a new kind of Titan." She mumbled under her breath. Flying towards them and landing next to them was Armin. "What are you still doing here Mikasa?"

Her eyes locked with Armin's, who was unaware of Bauman. Her eyes went from Armin to Bauman, who studied how much Armin had changed since he last saw him. Armin recognized Bauman, catching his breath at the sight. "Bauman, is it really you?" He nodded. "But I wont be here very much longer. The lift was destroyed and I have no way to get on top of the wall." Armin studied the wreckage of the lift, but simply pointed up to the top of the wall; "I'll get them to lower the other lift, but we need to fend off the Titans that are coming up from the ground. They seem to be the only threat right now."

Bauman nodded, drawing an arrow and resting the it against the string. Suddenly, from the ground emerged another Titan; it was much closer this time. Before it started going berserk, Mikasa flew around it and quickly sliced it's neck. Landing on a roof nearby, she turned around to see a horrifying sight; the Titan stared at her, anger filling it's face as it rose it's fist to smash her. Before it crushed the roof, Bauman pushed her out of the way, landing hard on their sides. "But, it's weak spot!?"

The Titan rose it's fist again, ready to strike.

'What the hell is this thing?' Mikasa thought as the shadow of it's arm engulfed Bauman and her in the darkest pit of fear. 'What is it?'


End file.
